United Kingdom

The broadcasters can't "empty chair" the Prime Minister - he may well get what he wants.

David Cameron is yet to commit to taking part in a televised leaders’ debate before this year’s general election and is engaged in a semi-public negotiation with the other parties and the broadcasters about whether a debate will take place and, if so, what the lineup and format should be.

The Labour leader accused Mr Cameron of "ducking and weaving" by refusing to sign up to the debates and said they should go ahead with or without the Tory leader.

David Cameron should be replaced with an 'empty chair' if he refuses to take part in TV election debates, Ed Miliband said today.

Badly burnt by what happened last time, the Tories set out to sabotage the negotiations right from the start.

The Greens, the Scottish National party and Plaid Cymru have joined forces to ask the BBC to rethink its plans to exclude them from the main TV leaders’ debates in next year’s general election.

Scotland's first minister-in-waiting is demanding that broadcasters think again on their proposals and said "it would be a failure in your duty of impartiality" if the debates go ahead as currently planned.

The BBC has rejected a demand from the Green Party to be included in the proposed TV leader election debates, saying that it, unlike Ukip, has not demonstrated any substantial increase in support.

PM has most to lose if broadcasters’ format for party leaders general election shows go ahead.

Should the party leaders debate with one another in the runup to the general election? Yes, absolutely, they should. Party leaders should be open to scrutiny.

David Cameron is under pressure to start negotiations on TV election debates with the other party leaders after Labour and the Liberal Democrats accused him of trying to sabotage the programmes.

In the run-up to what has been billed as the most important piece of televised political theatre in Scotland’s history, Alex Salmond and Alistair Darling have been polishing their soundbites, honing arguments and rehearsing ad-libs.